Crossing the border with Blue Jays beat reporter Jordan Bastian.

Catching some Rays

TORONTO — Strolled into the Jays clubhouse this afternoon and a good chunk of the players were taking in the end of the Rays/Indians game. A day after Toronto enjoyed a walk-off win here, Tampa Bay did the ol’ anything you can do, we can do better.

Down 7-4 in the ninth, the Rays rallied for six runs with no outs to take the game. Eric Hinske doubled home a run. Gabe Gross homered. And Carlos Pena hit a three-run walk-off blast to center.

Alex Rios obviously left the room before the rally, because he came back in and looked stunned to see Pena being interviewed on camera after what was apparently a Rays win.

“What happened?” begged Rios, who was quickly brought up to date. “That’s unbelievable. Just unbelievable.”

Believe it: Tampa Bay, 68-45. Toronto, 11 games back.

As for your Jays, not much going on in the way of news. Mighty Joe Inglett is still out of the starting lineup, but at leats available off the bench after missing the last two games with a bum left knee.

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9 Comments

If this game is lost you can blame it on Cito I said to my wife when Marcum gave up the home run that they should get someone up but no let him get into trouble and lose the game ,The funny thing is Gibbons would have gotten somebody up???did they make a mistake by letting Gibbons go because these nobodys can’t hit.

Tampa is a team on mission this season. Scrappy is a good word. They certain had some scrappy wins against the Jays. If it weren’t for Eric Hinske playing so well with them, I would really be rooting for Tampa to win the division. I’m just glad someone other than the Yankees or Red Sox may win the division for once. Still bothers me that Hinske would be leading the Jays in homers and RBI’s (i think) right now.

It is fun to see ex-Jays succeed (like Hinske and Gross), but way more fun to see Marcum coming back and Doc and AJ doing what we hoped they would do last April. We’ve got a shot. Why not the Jays and Rays at the top of the East?

Garryguy – I bet everybody in the bar was agreeing with you until MacDonald made that play and Marcum was over it! It is great to win three in a row!!

Yes, they’re 4-2 for the month of August. With 1 left with Oakland, 3 with Cleveland, 4 with Detroit, 6 with Boston, 6 with NY and 3 with TB this month, it would be a great time to see them go on a roll.

There is no question Joe Inglett has been a valued contributor to the Blue Jays this season and has proven out as a versatile and talented player in all regards.

Having said that, I do take exception to Mr. Riccardi recently being quoted as saying that he (Inglett) is much like Reed Johnston, and while he liked Johnston, he likes Inglett more as he has more to offer overall.

If you check Reed’s Chicago Cubs numbers against Joe’s, Reed is on top in pretty well every category, with both having played about the same number of games.

I thought it was a huge error on Riccardi’s part to dump Johnston in favour of the highly questionable and oft-times under-motivated Shannon Stewart and it seems to me Riccardi is now trying to justify his bad decision by rationalizing that Joe fills the void created by his gaff.

Reed Johnston was by far my favourite Jay, as witnessed by his always clutch performances, both offensively and defensively, as well as his hustle, grit, toughness, leadership and determination; characteristics sadly lacking throughout the Blue Jay roster over the first half of the season.

I feel Toronto really lost something when Riccardi simply “gave him away.”

Reed is in good shape, however, as he has a good shot at playing in the World Series, which sadly would not be the case had he remained with the Blue Jays.

rmiller
The problem with JP is one day he says one thing and the next day something else. A month ago, he dissed Joe Inglett and said he was nothing more than a so-so utility player, now he’s praising him. That’s sort of standard fare with JP.
I liked Reed as well, he has a lot of heart.

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